11 Tools Every WordPress Developer Should Have

WordPress is a strong platform, but it may be challenging to build and maintain a website. However, WordPress offers multiple tools and plugins you can use to make your site attractive. These plugins and tools help WordPress developers streamline their work processes.

These tools not only help you organize your work but also enable you to produce high-quality themes and websites.

Tools Every WordPress Developer Should Have

Here are 11 essential tools that every WordPress developer should have:

• Local WP
• InstaWP
• ManageWP
• WP-CLI
• Generate WP
• Buddy Works
• Query Monitor
• Scan WP
• Dimer
• Screaming Frog
• Postman (API Workflow)

Local WP

Local by Flywheel is a powerful local WordPress development tool that allows a single-click WordPress installation to create and manage WordPress websites easily. Local WP can create a local WordPress instance in less than 100 seconds, and it works well on Windows and macOS.

This tool is crucial for any WordPress developer since it makes it simple to establish a local development environment that is tailored to their unique requirements.

Pricing: Free

Features of Local WP

Here are some features of Local by Flywheel that make it the best choice for many developers:

• Live Link: You can establish live links with your team members or clients using Local WP to give access to local projects.
• Import and Export Sites: You can import and export site files, databases, configuration files, log files, and local settings.
• Cloud Backup: Cloud backups help create copies of your local website. Your work will be saved automatically to any Dropbox or Google Drive account that will allow access to website backups from any computer that has Local installed.
• Local Connect: You can use Local Connect to download a copy of the website to your local environment for easy offline editing. It works with Flywheel and WP Engine. You can also pull and push websites from Local to Flywheel or WP Engine for offline editing and go-live processes.
• Pre-Launch Add-ons: There are also numerous available add-ons, including Instant Reload, Link Checker, and Image Optimizer. Link Checker checks a website for broken links. Image Optimizer improves site efficiency by lowering page size, and Instant Reload assists in modifying the code and browser.

InstaWP

InstaWP is another tool designed to work seamlessly with WordPress. It makes it simple to set up a WordPress sandbox. You can test a fully functional WordPress website with a few clicks before it goes live. InstaWP saves time and offers to host your test site on live servers.

Features of InstaWP

There are many features:

• Live Server: It will automatically host your test site on live servers, saving you time and effort. It avoids technical issues like hosting servers when developing and testing websites.
• Free Domain: Each InstaWP site receives a free new domain name for its website, which it holds for the duration of its existence.
• Free SSL Certificate: You can get a free SSL certificate for each website when you create a website using this tool.
• InstaWP Documentation: Documentation helps you to get started quickly and get support if you get stuck.
• PHP & WP Version: You can choose the PHP and WP versions.
• In-Built Tools: In-built tools are Code Editor, Database Editor, Log Viewer, Git Integration, and SSH access with WP-CLI.
• Integrations: Integrating built-in test-site staging environments with third-party apps is generally a bit cumbersome. InstaWP makes this process much more flexible by offering an option to create API tokens.
• Migrate & Clone: You can also migrate or clone your staging site with a single click.

Pricing: InstaWP has both FREE and Premium versions.
There are three paid plans: Personal, Pro and Agency. The minimal monthly plan starts at $9/month, and the annual plan starts at $90/yr.

Free Version	Paid (9$/month)
5 Active Sites	10 Active Sites
500 MB Space	5 GB Space
48 hrs Site Expiry	7 Days Site Expiry
100 Git Operations	500 Git Operations
–	Custom Domain
–	FTP Access
–	Advanced Configurations

ManageWP Tool

ManageWP is a free and fast tool that helps you manage multiple websites. It provides one dashboard to manage all of your WordPress websites. Manage WP informs you about upgrades to the plugins, themes, and their new versions so you can ensure that your sites are always up-to-date and secure.

 Features of ManageWP Tool

• 1-click login: It links all your websites to a single dashboard, and you can log in to each website with a single click.
• Sucuri Security: It makes your websites clean, and if any files become infected, you can detect them due to their Sucuri Security feature.
• Vulnerability Checks: Vulnerability checks provide information about which plugins are vulnerable.
• White Label: White Label allows you to rebrand tools or hide them. You will pay $1 per month/website to use the white label feature.
• Template Builder: You can design unique templates for WordPress websites using Template Builder.
• Link Monitor: Link Monitor is also a broken link checker that scans an entire WordPress site to check for any broken links. To access this feature, you will pay $1 per month/website to use the link monitor feature.

WP-CLI Tool

The WordPress Command Line Interface (WP-CLI) allows users to run their websites through a command-line interface. Developers can use the command line to complete simple operations like installing and upgrading WordPress, managing themes and plugins, and dealing with the database through WP-CLI. It can be a learning curve for both new and experienced developers. However, it helps to speed up the development workflow. To learn more about WP-CLI, you can see the documentation on WordPress.

FEATURES OF THE WP-CLI TOOL

• Speed: It is a tool used for debugging performance issues.
• Backup: It has capabilities of database backup or making changes.
• Update Plugins and Themes:  It updates, deactivates, and removes plugins and themes. You can use WP-CLI to fetch all plugins installed on your website, their activation, update, and version.
• Import and Export: It is easy to import and export through WP-CLI. There are two ways to import and export content with WP-CLI. Firstly, you can export or import the database by creating an XML file. Another method is to use a wp-db export and a wp-db import file to generate a SQL file.
• Manage User Roles: WP-CLI can be used to manage user roles and to handle complex user administration tasks such as listing and editing user capabilities.
• PHP File: WP-CLI looks for essential information, such as the database access credentials in the wp-config.php file, before loading it. It loads and executes a PHP file.
• Site Management: WP-CLI can also be used to manage multisite installations, activate and deactivate, or check the status of a site’s maintenance mode.

GenerateWP

GenerateWP is a popular WordPress Code Generator. This tool allows users to select from several options to customize their code. Users can easily generate code for their projects because of its user-friendly interface. GenerateWP is specially designed for experienced users looking to improve their workflow, and new developers can also learn how to use the most recent WordPress features, coding standards, and APIs.

Features of GenerateWP

• Shortcode Generator: This tool helps to generate custom code for Shortcodes.
• Taxonomy Generator: You can use this tool to write custom code for taxonomies using the register taxonomy() function.
• Auto Code Generator: It also generates code for a website’s core, design, admin, content, and query. GenerateWP uses automatic code generators to speed up your workflow.
• Hook Generator: It can generate Custom action and filter hooks.

Pricing: GenerateWP has both Free and Paid versions. The premium plan starts at $25/month.

Buddy Works

Buddy Works serves as an all-in-one build, test, and deploy tool with dozens of integrations and ready-to-use third-party services. It is the most efficient way to create better apps faster, as it has CI/CD tools. Buddy’s delivery pipelines save you time by removing repetitive tasks in your everyday development. Moreover, it builds and sends web projects automatically on a single click.

Features of Buddy Works

• Graphical Interface: The graphical interface makes it simple to set up Buddy Works. It offers customization.
• Documentation: It has detailed documentation, which is helpful for beginners.
• Unlimited Pipelines: Buddy Works provides unlimited pipelines for deployments and unlimited repositories hosted on their platform.
• Integration: Buddy integrates with Slack, Cloudflare, Amazon Web Service, Azure, and Bitbucket.
• PHP Code Sniffer: Buddy CI/CD enables you to implement PHP Code Sniffer with more than 100 ready-to-use actions to automate your development.
• Language Support: It also supports multiple languages.

Pricing: BuddyWorks is a free tool. you can subscribe pro version for more advanced features, starting at $29/per month.

Query Monitor

Query Monitor is a free WordPress debugging plugin. It is used for debugging of WordPress site’s performance and development. It allows to identify and address any issue that may be impacting the performance or functionality of their website.

Features of Query Monitor

It has many features, including;

• Database Queries: It includes notifications for slow, incorrect, or repeated queries.
• PHP Error: PHP errors are displayed and given a warning in the admin toolbar. It also displays PHP information, including the memory limit and error reporting levels.
• Theme template files: You can also use the specific template file for the page, the various template parts, and the body classes. It can help with the development of custom themes.
• HTTP Request: It displays all HTTP requests made on the current page.
• MySQL: It shows MySQL details, such as caching and performance-related settings.

Pricing: Free

ScanWP

There are numerous WordPress developer tools for detecting active themes and plugins, but Scan WP is the most effective. Scan WP is a WordPress theme detector that can find almost all themes and plugins on a WordPress site. Moreover, to learn about a plugin or theme, you only need to enter the URL of a WordPress website. Scan WP is a free tool with an extension. They can also detect the hosting of the website. 

Features of ScanWP

When you enter the URL of the website, ScanWP provides

• Theme and Plugin Title
• Hosting
• Link to download theme
• Version
• Integration with Semrush

Dimer

Dimer is the top WordPress developer tool of 2023. It helps in the creation of better documentation. Dimer makes it simple to publish your documentation by providing a distraction-free writing experience and crafted themes. 

Features of Dimer

• Predefined Landing Support: It supports creating custom landing pages using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Multilingual Support: Dimer makes it easy to publish documentation in multiple languages. Your website will also allow your users to switch languages.
• Workflow Pipelines: Workflow pipelines ensure that all documents are checked before they are published online.
• Integration: Dimer integrates with GitHub to define rules for document publication after each submission, merge, or release of a document.

Screaming Frog Tool

Screaming Frog is a powerful tool for SEO. Frog screaming SEO Spider is a search engine optimization (SEO) tool that gives access to create website visualization and also produces XML sitemaps. This tool enables users to quickly and easily examine the structure and content of their website, which can be useful for several projects such as website building, content optimization, and SEO. It also fixes issues with on-page SEO, missing h1 titles, and missing alt text.

Features of Screaming Frog Tool

• Broken Links: It is helpful to find broken links on the website. It notifies and exports the errors and their sources.
• Analyze page titles: It analyzes your site’s page titles and meta descriptions and also finds lengthy, too short, absent, or duplicated titles.
• Discover Duplicate Content: An md5 algorithmic check is used to find low-content pages, exact duplicate URLs, and partially duplicated page titles, descriptions, or headings.
• XML Sitemaps:  It can create XML sitemaps and image sitemaps with URL configuration.
• Integration: It also integrates with GA, GSC & PSI.

Pricing: It has both free and paid versions. Paid version cost around 259$/Year.

Postman (API Workflow) Tool

Postman is one of the best WordPress developer tools for any API Developer for a powerful, unique feature solution for their API workflow. It also offers a wide range of features that make it easy to create, test, and debug API requests. It is a free and premium tool. Postman also helps to build better APIs quickly.

Features of Postman Tool

• API Design: Postman allows you to design API specifications in OpenAPI, RAML, GraphQL, or SOAP formats. The schema editor in Postman makes it simple to work with files of any size.
• Mock Servers: Before using your API, you can test it on the Mock servers in their final state. They are accessible wherever you need them, whether locally or remotely.
• API Documentation: Postman’s automatic documentation features make documentation a core part of your API workflow. You can create documents using your OpenAPI files and Postman, which supports markdown-enabled and machine-readable documentation.
• API Testing: Postman allows you to design and execute tests either within the Postman environment or as a component of your CI/CD pipeline. You can also create functional tests, integration tests, regression tests, and more with Postman. 
• API Detection: Postman monitors keep you informed about the health and performance of your APIs. Monitors are integrated with third-party dashboards and alerting tools such as New Relic and Slack.

Pricing: It has basic 14$/month, professional 29$/month both paid annually and Enterprise Plans.

Conclusion

If you want your work to be easier, you need the right tools as a WordPress developer. Therefore, from code editors to debugging tools, we’ve compiled a list of 11 essential tools for every WordPress developer. With the help of these tools, you can also improve and speed up the development of WordPress sites.

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